The
Celts

In ancient times, Pannonia,
bounded on the north and east by the Danube River, on the south by Dalmatia,
and on the west by Noricum and parts of upper Italy, including parts of
modern day Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia. It received its name
from the Pannonians, a people presumably of Illyrian blood who populated
the entire Transdanubian region in ancient times. The Illyrians were conquered
in the early third century BC by another Indo-European group, the Celts.

The Celts that occupied
the Transdanubian region brought with them the La Tène culture characterized
by a geometrical ornamentation in its art. The Celts established many settlements
and engaged in agriculture, manufactured iron implements, and became proficient
in pottery making. After 60 BC, the Celtic tribe of Eraviscan populated
much of the area of modern Budapest. They settled in what is today called
Békásmegyer and Tabán, north of Gellért Hill.
Great fortresses, called oppida in Latin, were the feature of the
settlements the Celts built all over Europe, used for defense and as religious
and economic centers where coins were minted. The Budapest oppidum,
discovered in the 1990s, is one of the earliest townships discovered in
the region.

The oppidum initiated
a separation of class in society as houses were built in the oppidum
apart from those of the agrarian population. The Celtic society evolved
into quite an advanced culture that allowed individuals to build fortunes
that can be seen by the riches and clothing found in tombs. Houses were
built in a rectangular shape from wood or wattle. They were supported with
a pole in the center of the house supporting the gable roof. The houses
were recessed in the ground or carved into caves.

These Celtic settlements
were eventually subjugated by the army of Augustus Caesar around the time
of the birth of Christ. The Romans remained in the region for more than
four hundred years, during which time Roman defenses were built along the
Danube. The line of defense built by the Romans where known as limes, which
would take on a special importance by the end of approximately 40 AD.

Romans
& Aquincum

Along these limes where
built camps such as Aquincum that can be seen in present day Óbuda,
which was one of the four legions built by the Romans in the Province of
Pannonia. Between the larger camps, auxiliary camps were set up twenty to
thirty kilometers apart. The ruins of two of these have been discovered
in Albertfalva and Nagytétény. In 106 AD, East Transdanubia
became an independent province called Pannonia Inferior, with Aquincum as
its seat. Pannonia Inferior played a very significant role as a frontier
against barbarian attacks. Several governors of the region were to become
emperors. The first was Hadrian, who ruled the province between 106 and
108, when he constructed the governor's palace on the Danube Island near
Óbuda. In 124, Hadarin made the town of Aquincum a municipality that
made many of the Celtic subjects Roman citizens. The rule of Roman law was
quickly established in Panonian cities such as Aquincum. Aquincum was overseen
by a governor, responsible for the army and public administration. The governor
lived on the Danube Island in a two-storied palace.

The center, or castrum,
of the legion camp in Aquincum once stood where present-day Flórián
Square in Óbuda now stands, near Árpád Bridge. The
camp was home to nearly six thousand troops. The civilians in Aquincum came
from places such as northern Italy and western European provinces. Many
were educated in literature, mythology, and law, bringing with them much
of Roman culture. The Roman army sought not only to conquer, but also to
spread their culture and civilize all with whom it came in contact. Many
of the remains from the legionary camp and the civilian town of Aquincum
can be found all throughout Óbuda such as the pedestrian underpass
at Flórián Square. High and very thick walls and a double
moat surrounded the castrum. Inside the walls were barracks, assembly
halls, officers' quarters, stores, arsenals, workshops, the baths, gymnasium
and infirmary, a network of streets, and in the middle was the headquarters
of the commander. On the southern edge of the town was the larger of the
two amphitheatres of Aquincum. With a capacity of over ten thousands, the
monumental structure with its tiered seating testifies to the fondness of
the Roman populace for bloody animal and human contests.

Two kilometers north
of the legionary camp was the civilian town, containing some fifteen thousand
inhabitants. A municipal council of one hundred members conducted its administration.
The town officials, two mayors, the supervisors of public buildings and
public works, and the financial counsels, were chosen from among them. The
public officers had to have private fortunes-the minimum of which was set-since
they received no remuneration for their function. When Aquincum was conferred
municipal status, the local Eraviscan aristocracy, wealthy landowners, rose
to acquire significant influence in town government. The interiors of the
villas unearthed in the area show the splendid lifestyle of this section
of the population.

It was freed slaves
who had managed to acquire a fortune of their own who made up the class
of those engaged in trade and finance and the order of priests. The lowest
municipal order was that of the artisans, who formed corporations, or collegia,
to protect their interests and carry out public duties. One such corporation
was responsible for fighting fires. From the ruins of their headquarters
a singular archaeological find, a portable water organ, has been discovered.

The civilian town also
had it amphitheatre, though it held a mere three to four thousand spectators.
Adjacent to it are the foundations of the quarters of those who had the
chief role in the contests-the gladiators.

Villages close by with
a Celtic population were considered suburbs, and their inhabitants were
without Roman citizenship. The administration of these was assigned to the
civilian town. Such outlying settlements were Vindonianus (present day Békásmegyer)
and Vicus Basoretensis (present day Kiscell).

From the late second
century on the composition of the civilian town, and its leadership, changed.
To joining the original Celtic and Eraviscan population and subsequent settlers,
mostly from Italy, Gaul, and Germania, cam immigrants from the east, Syrians
and Jews from Asia Minor who later became the majority in the government
of the town.

This same change also
led to the spread of eastern cults and mystery religions, such as the cult
of Mithras. The remains of seven shrines have been uncovered. Behind the
altars and sculptures of Mithras with one knee on the bull as he sacrifices
it. He is surrounded by numerous symbolic images, including the Sun, Moon,
a Snake and a Scorpion. Not much is known about the cult, apart from its
popularity with the army and the fact that there were two grades of initiation
its followers had to pass through.

From the beginning of
the third century Christianity spread in Aquincum, with an early Christian
basilica erected around the middle of the century. Its spread affected the
lifestyle. The bloody contests in the amphitheatre were discontinued, and
valuable artistic objects connected to the earlier cults, such as sculptures
of the gods, fell prey to the new religious enthusiasm.

For more than four centuries,
the region had flourished as part of the world's most developed and organized
civilization. Yet by this time the Empire, including most of its cities,
were under siege by invasions from the east. By the beginning of the fifth
century, the civilian town of Aquincum had been destroyed; only a garrison
of Huns and Germans remained in the fortress on the Danube shore. In the
fortified military town, which offered protection to the civilian population,
the local inhabitants were joined by newly arriving Germans, Sarmatians
and, sometime later, the Avars. Houses were shared by several families,
the large rooms were subdivided, and the altar slabs were plastered with
mud to be used as fireplaces. While the Roman lifestyle disintegrated, the
new settlers found themselves in a vastly more civilized way of life wit
the buildings and equipment of which they were in possession. The workshops
of the Roman town were still in operation during the Hun occupation, and
it was in these that they manufactured their daily implements and women's
jewelry.

The Huns, let by Attila,
could not adapt themselves to living in stone dwellings. They refused to
settle in Aquincum for quite some time. The name Buda (originally designating
what later became Óbuda) through legend stems from Attila's younger
brother who, while Attila was in the West, renamed Aquincum after himself.
Although the name probably came later in the eleventh century after the
Árpád dynasty settled in the region.

In the late 430s, the
first wave of Hun invaders destroyed everything in the town that could have
been used in its defense. For a century afterwards, Pannonia, Aquincum,
and the area Budapest occupies today were continual battlegrounds. A succession
of bloody skirmishes was fought on horseback, with one band barely distinguishable
from the next. The Avars ruled in the area from the last third of the 6th
century, and under them the region recovered some of its former importance.
Initially they settled only on the Pest plains, their chieftains making
their seat on the north of Csepel Island. Later arrivals established their
main settlement on the Buda side.